Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire

The Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (MPQ) is a personality test meant to measure normal personality developed by Auke Tellegen in 1982. It is currently sold by the University of Minnesota Press.

The test in its various versions has had 300, 276 and 198 true-false items. The current version is the 276 items one. There also exists a short form with 155 items (MPQ-BF). The questionnaire gives ratings on four broad traits, Positive Emotional Temperament, Negative Emotional Temperament, Constraint and Absorption, as well as 11 primary trait dimensions.

High Positive Emotional Temperament = behavior and temperamental characteristics conducive to joy, and to active and rewarding engagement with social and work environments. Low Positive Emotional Temperament = tendencies to experience joylessness, loss of interest, and fatigue, reflecting non-pleasurable and possibly depressive disengagement. Associated with Wellbeing, Social Potency, Achievement, and Social Closeness.

High Negative Emotional Temperament = proneness to experience anxiety, anger, and related emotional and behavioral negative engagement. Low Negative Emotional Temperament = a somewhat phlegmatic temperament, disposing to calm, relaxation, and other non-pleasurable states of disengagement. Most distinctively related to Stress Reaction, Alienation, and Aggression.

High Constraint = tendencies to inhibit and restrain impulse expression, unconventional behavior, and risk-taking. Low Constraint = inclined to act on impulse, take risks, and ignore conventional restrictions. Cluster of traits primarily linked to Control, Harm-avoidance, and Traditionalism.

Represents an openness to a wide array of absorbing and self-involving sensory and imaginative experiences. These experiences may have either an integrative ("peak experience") or a dissociative effect, depending on the presence of other personality characteristics measured by the MPQ.

"High scorers on this scale describe themselves as: Having a cheerful happy disposition; feeling good about themselves; seeing a bright future ahead; being optimists; living interesting, exciting lives; enjoying the things they are doing."

"High scorers on this scale describe themselves as: Being forceful and decisive; persuasive and liking to influence others; enjoying or would enjoy leadership roles; enjoying being noticed, being the center of attention."

"High scorers on this scale describe themselves as: Working hard, driving themselves; enjoying working hard; welcoming difficult and demanding tasks; persisting where others give up; ambitious; putting work and accomplishment before many other things; seting high standards; being perfectionistic."

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